Brave the Stage was a workshop that drew on the 30 years experience of a retired theatre and musical actor, to help shy poets and aspiring Open Mic presenters, to find their feet, their range, and their voices. We hosted the workshop twice, at a private studio, with 6 and 7 attendees, a co-facilitator and the lead presenter. The two guides met three times in advance to workshop the concept and the offering. The goal was for the experience to feel safe, encouraging, emboldening, playful. We tapped into the Society of Secret Poetry Appreciators’ growing community to promote the event, as well as our individual networks. We posted it to https://secretpoetryappreciators1.substack.com/p/brave-the-stage-a-free-workshop-to, Facebook, instagram and to email lists. Registration was via eventbrite. The 6 spots filled up very quickly, in both instances. Participants were a wide range of ages from 20 to 75. The workshop was 2.5 hours long, and each participant was invited to bring a poem of their own, or someone else’s to read. Two attendees chose song lyrics that they had written, but never shared before, and the culmination of each evening, was each singer songwriter electing to sing and play their original songs for the group. We invited the program coordinator for the local arts council to attend the second workshop, with a view to them possibly taking it under their umbrella of creative workshops. A wonderful thing that happened was that she assumed she was just “auditing” the event, but when she saw how intimate and share-oriented it was, she spontaneously wrote a poem, so that she’d have something to read/workshop, so she could experience and participate fully. It was fantastic. At both evenings, as we wrapped up, people said “We hope you do this again.”
